AVERY & BROWN STRIKE FOR MULTI-POINT NIGHTS IN 5-2 WIN OVER FLINT
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. Starting their week with a Wednesday night meeting with the Flint Firebirds, the Brantford Bulldogs began the night welcoming World Junior Hockey Championship Bronze medalist Adam Jiricek back to the lineup. Jiricek was called to center ice with fellow Czechia product Tomas Hamara and Bulldogs General Manager Matt Turek to award him with a framed picture celebrating his accomplishments at the tournament.
The Bulldogs welcomed a new face to the lineup, with Nikolas Rossetto missing the mid-week contest due to illness, Brantford’s own Tommy Karmiris made his way up from the Burlington Cougars for his OHL debut. A fast and physical start to the opening frame saw the Bulldogs look to pile up shots on Nathan Day in the Firebirds goal, launching the first seven shots of the game on the visitor’s net. The pressure paid off on the power-play at 10:08 with the Bulldogs on the power-play. Adam Jiricek and Lucas Moore exchanged the puck along the line with Jiricek sending it into the left circle for Calvin Crombie. The hard-nosed forward sent a perfect seem pass in between all four penalty killers to the right circle for Marek Vanacker who whistled a shot off back glass. The puck bounced back, catching the top of the net and fluttering out front of the goal where Josh Avery beat a defender and bunted in his 7th of the season to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. The hosts extended the lead at 14:41 after Avery and Dylan Tsherna trapped the Firebirds on the end boards with Tsherna coming away with the puck behind the goal. Sliding out the left side, Tsherna laid the puck into the slot where Noah Roberts was able to crash down from the blueline and lift it over Nathan Day to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead on his 4th of the season. The Bulldogs offense wasn’t done for the opening period, another goal mouth scramble at 16:15 that began with Owen Protz breaking down from the left point ended with Patrick Thomas delivering to Cole Brown to battle over the goal line for his 15th of the season and a 3-0 Bulldogs lead. The Firebirds raced to stay in the game and just 17-seconds after Brown’s goal, Hayden Reid leapt onto a loose puck in neutral ice and sped into the Brantford zone on the left-wing side, launching a left-circle drive over the shoulder of Ryerson Leenders to cut the Bulldogs to 3-1 on his 4th of the season. With 20-minutes played the teams hit the locker rooms with the hosts holding the 3-1 advantage.
Flint closed in early in the second period in a 3-on-2 rush with Christopher Thibodeau playing the puck on the left-wing side for Nathan Aspinall to skate onto. The towering Firebirds forward entered the Bulldogs zone and whipped a wrist shot to Leenders goal that the Brantford netminder turned aside but with Thibodeau taking attention out front of the net landed for Alex Kostov through the middle of the ice where he quickly turned it into the Brantford net on his 6th of the season at 2:33. The Bulldogs quickly dusted themselves off and got back on the front foot. Josh Avery knocked a clearing attempt down inside the Flint line and carried through the slot where his shot was deflected off the back boards. Bouncing back towards the side of the Flint goal, Aiden O’Donnell batted the puck towards Day and it somehow managed to squeak through Day and roll inside the post, over the goal line for the rookie forward’s 6th of the season, giving the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead at 7:44 that they would carry into the final frame.
The only goal of the third period came in highlight fashion with the Bulldogs top-line away in a 3-on-2 rush. Patrick Thomas moved the puck on the right side for Nick Lardis who delivered a saucer pass back left for Cole Brown. With a short hesitation, Brown dealt it back across the net-front to Lardis to hammer in his 33rd of the season, giving the Bulldogs a 5-2 lead. Ryerson Leenders was at his busiest in the final frame stopping 11 shots over the final 20 minutes and making a potential save of the year candidate in the process, denying Connor Clattenburg on a rebound opportunity by splitting back across the crease and stealing the puck away from what would have been an open net. With Leenders stopping 24 of 26, the Bulldogs skated away with a 5-2 victory.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on Saturday night, January 11th making a trip to the Peterborough Memorial Centre for a divisional game with the Petes.
